Govt plans to end role of Bappenas criticized

Govt plans to end role of Bappenas criticized

Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Post

Economists have raised questions over a government policy
allowing the finance ministry to take over the drawing up of the
country's short- and medium-term economic development programs
from the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas).

Umar Djuoro and Dradjat Wibowo told The Jakarta Post on
Thursday that the move would give much greater authority to the
finance ministry, which is already overburdened with its current
task of preventing a fiscal crisis.

"The finance ministry is already overstretched. It already has
plenty of areas to cover. I'm afraid the inclusion of a new task
would make the ministry even less efficient," Umar said.

Dradjat was more focused on the control mechanism because the
new development planning task meant a wider span of bureaucracy,
which would necessitate a wider span of control.

"This will create a piling up of authority within the finance
ministry, making it a 'fat' bureaucracy, making it hard to
control, as the span of control would be too wide," Dradjat said.

The two were commenting on the recent enactment of the state
finance bill, which would effectively end the role of Bappenas in
determining and drawing up development programs in the country.

Under the bill -- which awaits President Megawati
Soekarnoputri's signature to become a law -- activities relating
to the country's fiscal policies will be all under the authority
of the finance ministry, which will no longer have to coordinate
with Bappenas as it had to previously.

This will effectively scrap Bappenas' workload as its existing
duties will no longer exist.

Currently, Bappenas is obliged to actively participate in the
drawing up of macroeconomic targets, yearly state budget figures
and the five-yearly national development program (Propenas).

The bill says that, Propenas -- which had been used as the
main reference for the making of annual state budget -- is no
longer suitable and realistic for the current fast-changing
economic framework.

The replacement for Propenas will be a document called the
Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which is an economic
guidance made for a three-year period.

Elsewhere, Dradjat and Umar also questioned the ability of
human resources at the finance ministry to properly deal with the
new task.

"The staff at the finance ministry, both in terms of numbers
and skill, is not sufficient to accomplish such a tremendous
workload," Dradjat added.

Umar agreed, saying: "Even if there is a massive movement of
personnel from Bappenas to the finance ministry, still it would
not be efficient, because time for adjustment would be needed."

Bappenas, established 40 years ago, in the past, particularly
during the administration of president Soeharto, was a very
powerful agency as all key projects had to pass through the
office for approval.